Thursday, August 30, 2012

Today Austin worked on a forest craft.  He really likes crafts and art!  He started by painting his sky at the top of his paper.  He had declined getting dressed this morning...
 
Then he painted the back of a sponge I had cut into a tree shape and used it as a stencil on his paper to make woods.





Then he filled in grass at the bottom and we let his painting dry.

Meanwhile, Gavin was working more on the geoboard with reflections. This time he did the reflection horizontally and then vertically (new words we have been using this week in other subjects so it was a timely lesson).  He did great with this and we never had to get out the reflecting plastic thing.


Then he folded a paper horizontally then vertically.

Next he drew a little man on one corner of the paper.  He folded it in different directions again and had to predict where the man would end up.  He had no problem doing this.

Then it got a little trickier.  He pushed a pin through the paper.  He knew right away that there would be four holes on the paper when he unfolded it.  I had him draw a dot on a piece of scrap paper showing where he thought the four dots would be on his paper when he unfolded it.

This was his reaction when he realized he was completely wrong!

We did this a couple times and it was a little harder for Gavin than predicting where the man would end up. 
 
When Gavin started working on something else, Austin started playing with the the geoboard.  I called out a shape and he put it on the board!

He was very proud of his work!

Gavin finished writing 'The Star Spangled Banner'.


By now Austin had decided to get dressed!  Since his painting was dry he added a couple of clouds in the sky.

Then he glued paper around the painting to make a window frame.

Once that was done he added some forest animal stickers to their correct places in the woods.


It turned out really cute even though his clouds are sideways!


Last month at BigLots I randomly found some Japanese peanuts so I picked them up knowing we would be studying Japan.  They were actually made in China so I'm not so sure how authentic they are but Gavin liked them and thought it was neat to eat Japanese peanuts.

Here is little Miss Adelaide!  Her shirt was her Easter dress last April.  It is now a shirt that looks very cute with some brown leggings!  She's been sticking out her lower lip when she's looking around the last few days.  I call it her 'bulldog' face!





She isn't falling here, she just likes to lean back and stretch.  It's kind of funny...funnier in person then in a picture!



Austin really wants to play piano!  He actually did a pretty good job considering he was just randomly banging.


Our neighbor was nice enough to give us passes to the pool so we spent a couple hours this evening swimming!

The kiddie pool was tiny and really dirty.  Austin played in it for about 30 minutes and was done.

Um, yeah, you can see the dirt even in the picture.  You can also see how wide it is and it wasn't much longer than it was wide.  Austin had fun though and that's what matters!





The other pool was cleaner and a good size and only three feet deep which was perfect for Gavin!  He is tall enough he could walk in it.  Austin spent the last hour and a half throwing a ball in for Gavin to go get and throw back (Austin was on the side, not in the pool).  After swimming for two hours, Gavin had to go to soccer practice!



Austin was ready to go home!
That was our day!
 
Gavin finished his first reader.
We read these books for science and Gavin added a rabbit to his powerpoint.



Gavin also finished this book that was homework.  It's eleven chapters so he had two weeks to get it done.

 


Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Yesterday Gavin worked on making symmetrical shapes on the geoboard. 
 
In science we read about forest animals and he started working on his habitats PowerPoint. He added a slide about foxes to the forest section. He is very excited to have a project on the computer!  Of course, typing is taking him forever!

Gavin read this book about animals that live in an oak tree.

And I read him this book about a fox.

Austin did a forest craft.  We found leaves outside and used them as stencils.  It's a fall tree so we are a little early on the changing seasons!  First I cut out a tree shape from a paper bag and he painted the back of it and then used it as a stencil.  Austin has been such a clown this week.  I don't know what he's up to but he's trying out all kinds of very expressive faces and making us laugh!







He used dot paints to make 'leaves' at the bottom of his tree.

Then he painted the paper he used underneath his stencils while he was painting them.

Here is his tree when it was all finished.

The boys have been having many battles in the afternoons this week.

Adelaide joined us for school most of this morning because she just didn't seem to want to nap!  We don't mind having her with us though!

Today Gavin divided shapes into symmetrical halves and we talked about symmetry in nature.



Austin painted again.


We had our second day of Japan today.  We read two books and then the boys made koi wind streamers.  I found this idea on Pinterest from the website: http://www.thecraftyclassroom.com/ThemeJapaneseCrafts.html
 
We are using several of her Japan crafts this month.  Anyway, first the boys glued tissue paper scales onto construction paper.






It took some diligence so it was a good thing diligence was our topic in Bible last week!


Then they turned it around and glued crepe paper on the back.


Here's the finished wind streamers!

These are the books about Japan we read today.


In history we finished reading about the War of 1812.  Gavin updated his history journal.  It is the same journal that he used last year.  At the end of this year it should cover American history from the Native Americans to about 1900.

Austin was just playing with his soldiers at this point.


Here are Gavin's history journal pages.  The first one reads "USS Constitution was nicknamed 'Old Ironsides'.  You can see the British ship on the right broken in two from the cannonballs while the cannonballs are in the water around Old Ironsides on the left.  The black on the ship is it's cannons.

And yet another battle.  This page says, "Oliver Perry refused to surrender at the Battle of Lake Erie." and it shows Oliver Perry crossing in a row boat from his sinking ship to another ship under his command while being heavily fired upon!

Here are the books we read today in history.  They are both picture books with beautiful pictures!  The first one tells the story about Francis Scott Key writing the Star Spangled Banner.

This was a great book about a little town in Maryland that made ships for the American Navy and was attacked by the British, who were sailing on the Chesapeake.  It was raining and foggy so the people put their lanterns up high in trees around the sides of the town.  Because of the fog, the British couldn't see the town so they spent the entire night firing at the lights.  In the morning they left, thinking the town was destroyed but they hadn't hit anything in the town!

We have two more chapters left in Bobby Coon, which we've been reading at lunchtime.

And we just finished The Three Musketeers last night!